My Summer Yoga Term 2013

“Strengthening your capacity for attention is the real key to Yoga, and your breathing is the key to this capacity. This is more important than being able to touch your toes, or stand on your head, or turn yourself inside out”

Erich Sciffmann.

Lesson planning: a time consuming drudge or.. a creative and meditative process?

Designing a yoga practice isn't so dissimilar to painting a picture, choreographing a dance, composing a song, or writing a poem. For me yoga lesson planning is a creative process, that if tended, nurtured, nourished, and given space will grow and evolve. Adopting a too rigid, rational, logical approach at the start of the planning journey can have the same outcome as an elephant plonking itself down on a bed of flowers. Ok at some point you might need to think about learning aims, objectives, and outcomes etc., but at this early stage of class planning the main aim is just to get your creative juices flowing, and to get some ideas on the table. When a yoga class works well, participants relax in to a place where they can unfold and get in touch with a peaceful place within themselves. As teachers we need to start our course planning from that peaceful place too. It was with this in mind that on a cold, rainy April day I began planning my summer term yoga classes. To kick off the process I did a ten minute walking meditation. As I walked I mused on what shape I wanted my summer yoga classes to take. I must have presented a pretty odd sight, to anyone peering in through my windows, as I walked back and fourth between my kitchen and front room, mulling over my ideas for ingredients for a delicious summer term. I followed this with a short period of sitting meditation, and then a writing meditation. Without editing at all, I just scribbled down any and all ideas that came in to my head. The ideas I jotted down were for my eyes only, but you can take a peek at my first ideas scribblings

Dancing with the breath...

Once I'd got a few first ideas scribbled down on to paper, the idea that emerged most strongly for me was that of freeing the diaphragm. This is a pertinent theme for me, as I have a long established habit of whenever I'm anxious or fearful of tightening up my diaphragm, and consequently breathing in a shallow way. They say you teach what you most need to learn! Also at the end of winter I think we all tend to have adopted a closed-in posture with the effort to stay warm. I decided to integrate the Heart Opening Sequence into a well established routine of sequences that I had been teaching the previous term. Then over the term I have built on the Heart Opening Sequence, gradually dropping the sequences I had been using the previous term, and instead introducing the Floor Sun Salute, and The Moon Salute. I start the class with these fluid, flowing, watery sequences that get the energy flowing and bring warmth into the body. Then the second half of the class is usually devoted to relaxing in to poses, and focusing on the breathing. My stick-people lesson plans are just meant as an aide memoire for me when I teach, but you can have a peek at week 4, 5, and 6 to see how my ideas developed. In her book "Yoga Mind, Body and Spirit" Donna Farhi says: “Whatever movement or yoga asana you are practicing, allow the basic expanding condensing pattern of the breath to express itself through you at all times. Then all your practice will become like a dance in which the invisible partner of the breath guides you.” My class focus on pranayama this term has been with this idea of befriending the breath. The first step in pranayama will always be simply getting familiar with the natural rhythm of your breath. This is also a step that all of us have to regularly re-visit to find out what our starting point is. Also this checking in with the natural breath will develop a good self-awareness; so for someone like me, it might alert me to the fact that my emotional reaction to something or other, has tied my diaphragm in to knots. Then with the help of yoga I can begin the slow process of untying those knots and with some relief breathing freely again. In savasana, at the start of each class this term, I encourage my students to focus on a particular aspect of the breath. Then later in the class when they are holding a pose, I will again remind them to focus on that aspect of the breath. So for example, if our focus has been on lengthening the exhale, we will come back to that as we hold a pose such as seated forward fold (pascimatanasana). It sounds a bit dry when you put it like that, but the teaching really comes to life for me when I get feedback from my students on how it has helped them in their everyday lives. One student had been visiting a sick relative the previous day, she came to class feeling upset and drained. Using the technique of focussing on and gradually lengthening the exhale, at the end of the class, she told me, that she felt calmer, more relaxed, and better able to cope with the difficult situation she found herself in. Another student had a light-bulb moment, when the breath and the pose came together, and she felt that sense of oneness and yogic bliss. Of all the pranayama techniques I've taught this term, my own favourite exploration of the breath has been one lying supine on your front in makrasana (crocodile pose), you observe the movement of the breath in various parts of your body.

Lying Butterfly pose is a wonderful position for focussing on breath awareness

“Yoga is not mechanical, and proper breathing will bring an increasingly creative sense to your practice. It should always feel as though you are learning something new. Be glad you have the time and inclination to practice. Be thankful you have discovered Yoga. Be grateful. Celebrate your realization that the energy, enthusiasm, and attention you bring to your Yoga now will benefit all other moments of your life as well. Practice with passionate calm.”"Yoga: The Spirit and Practice of Moving in to Stillness" Erich Schiffmann.

Wave like Sun Salute

With the coming of the Summer Solstice I felt very drawn to teaching the Wave-like Sun Salute, inspired by Sandra Sabatini.As you salute the sun, feel the wave-like rhythm of your breath. Also hold in your mind's eye an image of the ebb and flow of waves rolling in and out, along the sea shore, sparkling gem-like as they catch the sunlight.Perhaps you can hear the sound of gulls, and feel the warm sand between your toes.

To plan or not to plan that is the question...

As you've probably gathered I'm someone who enjoys yoga lesson planning. My original training is in art and design, so I enjoy the creativity of designing yoga practices. As a teacher if you always wing-it without any planning, I think you are probably short-changing your students; on the other hand sometimes it is refreshing just to let go of your plan and simply respond to the group of students who are in front of you. The classes I usually get the most compliments for, are the ones that I teach intuitively, without any lesson plan. It's often these classes that elicit the response: "That was just what I needed".

I've reintroduced the meditation bells (a present from my students) at the start and finish of our final meditation/ relaxation. Everyone seems to love this sound...